Last year a brake line in my truck burst open coming to a rather busy intersection, the hydraulic brake system still worked to some degree with the pedal to the floor but the emergency brake did in fact prevent some serious carnage. Its one of those things that you don't need until you need it and then you REALLY need it.

I would have to say when the brake line in your truck burst open, you still have braking but the system is now dependent on the front or the rear.

Where did the brake line burst?

Most cars and light/mid trucks have brake systems that are independent between the front and the rear wheels.

It's for a reason, when one of the system breaks a hose or a line in the front or the rear, only that side will be disabled and the other side will remain operational but to a reduced degree.

With everything operational and in good condition, the brake system is 'sync'ed with the front and the rear, pedal is firm under pressure.

My uncle has a '91 Camaro RS and was driving home 2 months ago, the brake line in the rear bursted open (due to corrision on the brake line), he still had braking but the pedal was deeper to the floor and was less than firm. The fronts were helping him slow down.

If for some reason there's a total brake failure (seals in master cylinder went bad, vaccum reserve lost, etc) then there's the parking/emergency brake to use.

It's not effective as hydraulic brake but it works.

-Chris

I cant tell you many PARKING BRAKES i have had to replace because people drove their car with it applied and didnt even know it untill they smelled something funny. And this was on Mercedes and BMW's. Its not an emergency brake,its a parking brake that is used for parking not stopping your car from 50 mph.

In my 328xi owners manual, it states to operate the parking/emergency brake once in a while when rolling to a stop to keep the braking surface inside the disc clean and noise free.

I do that about every few months.

A long time ago, while driving to a hardware store...I saw a old man driving a newer model Toyota Camry in front of me and my Z28 a/c was blowing a burning brake smell into my car.
The car in front of me came to a stop when someone was making a turn in front of him into a store lot, I saw smoke coming out of his rear wheels...a few seconds later he took off and that horrible squealing sound and smell got worse...oh the horror to the next time the rear brake gets looked at by the next tech...

That's why some people call that the funny smell pedal

Jamie Griffith

Try it

Just try it, you can call it whatever you want but every vehicle is different. Most parking/emergency brakes only operate the rear wheels. On most fords it does not even use the rear calipers and instead uses a small drum setup inside the rotor.

All I can say is try it, it is very ineffective. It is borderline useless on my expedition. As mentioned most systems are separated hydraulically between front and rear and brakes have a pretty good record. In the past i have had failed brake boosters in the old vacuum years and the main pedal was still more effective.

A vehicle gets 70 percent of it's braking from the front wheels, the rear is more for stability, just ask any motorcycle rider.

One thing about the pedal emer brakes is there is no modulation, you need to get your hand down on the release handle to use it with any control. Other than that you are going to just lock up the rears and loose control. I have no idea what the GM guys would do since the pedal has to be pressed harder to be released again.

Long story short, if you are already in a breaking situation and discover your brakes failed, you would be lucky to get the emergency brake actuated within 6 seconds, and at 60 miles an hour that is already over 500 feet and then not having front brakes would be a long stop. So unless you practice this crap... just wait for the impact sadly.

So in a nutshell the handbrake and emer foot brake are there for all the Honda guys with fart pipes to do burnouts since they can't make any torque.

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In a pinch, and the car needs to be used befor I can replace the parts. So I just asked so that I was a 100% sure that the man brakes would stell work.

For any reason that I thought that I was having a brake failure in speeds over 40mph there is no way that I would use the e brake. For 1 there are 2 chambers in the master cylinder That is to insure that if there is a brake in the front/rear the other well stell work. 2 If the booster fails you well stell have brakes they just will not be power/boost assisted brakes. So if any one of you would like to lock the rear brakes up while trying to slow the car down then just go ahead and apply the e brake. If you've enuff speed you'll have a blow out. That is if you could keep the car in control. But this well only happen if your e brake realy works.

Assuming that your parking/emergency brake is operated by a handbrake lever (mostly european) and not one of those ratchety foot pedal things on the bulkhead of your car (mostly american), then the handbrake comes in handy LOL for turning the car around in the road without resorting to forward and reverse gears

In all the cars I've owned, including a 3rd gen Trans Am, the handbrake worked, both to stop the car rolling away when parked on an incline (I leave 'em in gear or Park anyway as a matter of course!), and also to slow the car down if it was coasting down the road. Not that I used it for that purpose, only as it was meant to be used...and handbrake turns.

If the situation arose where I did not have hydraulic braking, then the handbrake would indeed help.

Little Spinning Bundle of Joy® DON'T DISS THE DINO!!

Assuming that your parking/emergency brake is operated by a handbrake lever (mostly european) and not one of those ratchety foot pedal things on the bulkhead of your car (mostly american), then the handbrake comes in handy LOL for turning the car around in the road without resorting to forward and reverse gears

That's exactly what I was going to say, whipping the ass end around the corner is the only thing its good for.

Ok, how many of you have EVER had to pull the e/parking brake to stop and if so how well did it stop the car?

i used the floor pedal e brake to stop a for f-250 when the brake booster manifold failed completely and i had no brake at all total failure and the e brake stopped me and i also down shifted the truck down to 2 then 1 gear came to within 3 inches of a car in front of me and i think i lost ten years off of my life for that one

and it worked very well

my jeep grand cherokee ebrake works great will stop it pretty quick as the same for my s-10 blazer, and my 87 camaro stopped it very well for all when i owned them and i kept the brakes well tuned

News flash:
DS 8717 formally MR10X was killed in a car wreck yesterday when his parking brakes failed to stop his car when his primary brakes failed.Ironically he was on his way to get a brake inspection

YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE..IF YOU LIVE IT RIGHT THATS ALL YOU NEED

News flash: DS 8717 formally MR10X was killed in a car wreck yesterday when his parking brakes failed to stop his car when his primary brakes failed.Ironically he was on his way to get a brake inspection

In the UK we call it the handbrake because it is activated by pulling a handle up. Most cars in the UK when driven in a straight line and at speed will not stop promptly if the handbrake is applied. The car will slow gradually. This is beacuse when discs are fitted the parking brake shoes are tiny in comparison to those fitted in drum brakes.

It would be very rare to have a total brake failure nowadays as the system is split either front and rear or diagonal front and rear.

Back to the drum brake. On the cars I have had that had drum brakes the parking (hand) brake activation was by a cam between the shoes and opposite the slave cylinder. So without the mechanism fitted the brake wouldn't work at all.

Good one.

Seriously,i had my own repair shop for 35 years,we specialized in Mercedes ,BMW and Volvo models. They have the worst brakes of any cars made. Half the time the Parking brakes didnt work because they were froze up and when they did they were almost useless.The american cars have better parking brakes and would probably slow a car down but it depends on the model. I have never had the brakes fail on my car while i was driving it. But i have seen cars where the brake rotors were worn completely through and rattling around.

I just did some front brakes on a 1/2 ton pickup,there was NO face left on the rotors,calipers were stuck or frozen.

Jamie Griffith

Lot of good stuff here and a lot of back and forth opinions too.

I have thought about failing brakes many times, myself. And I have
tried using the emer/prkg brake for that very reason.

03Fomoco said it very well! If you are on solid pavement, you will
get some stopping power and it will get stopped....if you have that
much road ahead of you to play with. Although I have only tried it
at lower speeds. And if the pavement is dirty at all or on gravel,
you are not going to stop!! (Might as well be sheer ice)Most of
your stopping power IS at the front,and I, also learned and used that
over the years of riding motorcycles.

And, driving an older vehicle w. the pedal under the dash........unless that is something you practise, your reaction
time to get your foot up there is probably going to be WAY too much;
On the other hand, having that handbrake right beside me would
certainly be SOME peace of mind.

Otherwise, they are much more effective as a parking brake. And I
would sure leave the E-brake mechanisms functioning, or fix what is
not.